FILE PHOTO: Exterior of the former University Medical Center at Princeton, at the corners of Leigh Avenue and Whitherspoon Street in Princeton. TIMES OF TRENTON

PRINCETON — With town officials and AvalonBay trying to end a legal battle over the developer’s proposed 280-unit apartment complex on Witherspoon Street, the planning board will vote tonight on an agreement that would allow the company to submit a revised plan for the the development.

Council agreed Monday during a closed session to have town attorneys enter into a consent order that would set a timetable for AvalonBay to submit a new design for the housing. The planning board rejected the previous plan in December over concerns that the new structure would be too large and too much like a gated community.

The developer went to court last month to appeal the decision, but also approached the town earlier this month with new plans that it said took citizens’ concerns into account, Mayor Liz Lempert said.

“We’re hoping that by putting it back in front of the planning board, it perhaps might be a plan the community would think could work,” town attorney Edwin Schmierer said yesterday.

The consent order would suspend potentially costly litigation between the town and AvalonBay. If the planning board eventually approves the resubmitted application, the lawsuit would effectively be dismissed, town officials said yesterday. However, AvalonBay could restart the litigation if the new application is unreasonably delayed.

Alexi Assmus, a member of Princeton Neighborhoods for Sustainable Neighborhoods and a critic of the proposed development, said she hoped the process would take place in public.

“We are uncomfortable that the process only involved a few people discussing this behind closed doors and seemed not involve the planning board, which made the decision,” Assmus said. “We hope that this process will respect the opinion of hundreds of people who turned out at the planning board meeting, and the over 40 people who spoke.”

AvalonBay declined comment yesterday.

The planning board will discuss the litigation tonight in closed session and vote on whether to enter into the consent order. Board attorney Gerald Muller said the board hoped to lay out a timetable for a new application.

AvalonBay wants to build the apartments on the site of the old University Medical Center of Princeton, which closed last year when a new hospital opened in Plainsboro. During lengthy public hearings, residents criticized the size, height and access ways of the proposed new structure.

Town officials said this week that AvalonBay had made modifications meant to address those concerns. The company has proposed moving the taller sections away from the street, building a road through the development, providing open space closer to the street and downsizing the project’s controversial pool, among other changes, Lempert said.

The new plan would also call for the construction of several townhouses on the property, she said.

“They have been of a different tenor than what’s happened up until now and they’ve shown that they are finally listening to the community and trying to address a lot of the concerns,” she said Tuesday.

The mayor stressed that the town has made no decisions on the plan. The company will have to reapply and go through the public review process again.

The redrafted plan would still have 280 units, including 56 affordable units. It was not clear whether the proposed townhouses would contain affordable units.

Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Fair Share Housing Center, said Wednesday that his group would watch the process. A judge recently allowed the organization to join the AvalonBay case on behalf of the project’s affordable housing component.

“Our big interest is still in the 56 units getting built. If there’s a faster way to do it, I’m all for it,” Walsh said. “The town has a real uphill battle and it would be in everyone’s best interest for this to be settled.”